Netflix doc on Selena Quintanilla-Pérez comes…
NEW YORK (AP) — For many, the identify Selena Quintanilla-Pérez is the stuff of mythology. The Queen of Tejano broke boundaries for girls in Latin music genres of all sorts; it’s simple to see the through line between her contributions to the current success of regional Mexicana music. But it’s been 30 years since the singer recognized merely as Selena was killed at 23 — and those who love her are working arduous to guarantee her legacy endures for many years to come.
One such instance: “Selena Y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy,” a documentary from director Isabel Castro and government produced by Selena’s siblings, Suzette Quintanilla and AB Quintanilla III. It hits Netflix on Monday.
“I do understand that what Selena means so many years later, to the Latino world,” Suzette Quintanilla says. “Who better than to tell our story other than us?”
A new documentary on Selena Quintanilla-Pérez called “Selena Y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy” is executively produced by the singer’s siblings. AP
Making the film
The Quintanilla household, prepared to share with the world never-before-seen archival materials, reached out to Castro following the release of her 2022 movie “Mija,” sensing she may be the right individual to inform Selena’s story.
“Suzette, we met, we kind of immediately hit it off,” says Castro. “We are both older sisters.”
The feeling was mutual. “She was a fan,” says Suzette Quintanilla. “She totally understood the struggle between being Mexican American and embracing both cultures.”
Then the work started: years of combing through and cataloging “floor-to-ceiling, like, DVDs, VHSes, canisters of raw film, flash drives,” says Castro. There have been duplicates, too, which required figuring out the best high quality footage — all the while “trying to turn a myth into a personal story,” she said.
“We call it ‘the vault,’” Suzette Quintanilla says of their assortment. “We have everything that you could possibly think of.”
The Quintanilla household shares never-before-seen archival materials in the documentary. AP
Across the footage, Selena the sister, daughter and individual emerged — not just the famous person face of her household’s band, Los Dinos. The moments that meant the most to Castro have been the most intimate: Suzette holding a camcorder and filming her sister, a handwritten letter Selena gave to her husband Chris Pérez and scenes from inside their first tour bus, the notorious Big Bertha.
Selena’s mom, Marcella Quintanilla, had not completed an interview about her late daughter since her death — and even before, remained largely behind the scenes. For the documentary, she opened up, sharing photograph albums and reflecting publicly for the first time.
“I love my mom in the documentary,” Suzette Quintanilla beams.
Selena “became representative of something so vital for me about, like, what it means to be a Latina in this country,” says Castro. “Seeing the home video reminded me that she was just a young girl who died when she was 23.”
Selena, the cultural icon
For those who grew up with the music of Selena as a cultural touchstone, it would appear to be her story is well-mined: There is the now-classic 1997 biopic “Selena,” which helped launch the profession of its lead Jennifer Lopez, a 2020 Netflix collection and a lot more. “Selena Y Los Dinos” nods to that legacy, but appeals to both the loyal fan and the viewer who may only know her identify.
“The most challenging part of the editing process was trying to thread the needle between making this film for her built in audience — which is vast and extremely dedicated and extremely knowledgeable — and new audiences around the world and also new generations,” says Castro.
For those not well-versed in her music, Selena’s public-facing story often focuses on the small print surrounding her death. (Selena was killed by her fan membership’s president, Yolanda Saldívar, in 1995. Saldívar, serving a life sentence in Texas, was denied parole in March.) “Selena Y Los Dinos” doesn’t spend a lot time at all with the end of her extraordinary life.
“We do not focus on the murder,” says Castro, who says her movie is about a Latina’s pleasure and energy. “I’m kind of fed up with this expectation that Latino stories are often centered around victimhood.”
“This is about her life, our life and our growth, and telling our story at Selena Y Los Dinos,” says Suzette Quintanilla. “The person who took her life and everything that has to do with her death is off the table. This is about what we created.”
“This is about her life, our life and our growth, and telling our story at Selena Y Los Dinos,” sister Suzette Quintanilla says. AP
Getting personal to inform a greater story
“Selena Y Los Dinos” also makes it a level to emphasize the undercelebrated aspects of Selena’s story: Her discovered bilingualism and bicultural id, her battle to make it to the top of the music industry as a Latina and her marriage to Pérez, Los Dinos’ guitarist. He also seems in the doc; their elopement was controversial in the Quintanilla household as Selena was just 20 at the time. (“I’m glad that she did experience love,” says her sister. “I realize now that I’m older, and now that she isn’t. … I do realize that life is short and we only have one life. So, you have to live it.”) That is achieved through intensive interviews with the Quintanilla household and members of Los Dinos alone — there are no critics or historians leaping in to present further context.
“A huge goal of mine was to try to really take this symbol and make the film feel as personal as possible. And I felt that if it was told from the perspective of her family and those who knew her best, it would allow viewers to kind of have that experience,” said Castro.
Suzette Quintanilla’s hope is that Latino audiences discover great illustration in the movie.
Her dream is that it “continues her legacy, our legacy” as properly as furthers understanding of Selena “and what she represents to us as Latinos and to the younger generation. It’s also hopefully to inspire that if you have a dream, go for it.”
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